How to qualify for an $8,000 stimulus payment you didn’t even know about

The IRS days ago just sent out a new stimulus check to more than 2.3 million recipients, and while everyone is also waiting for the first of what will be a new monthly series of stimulus checks starting July 15 -- thanks to an expansion of the federal child tax credit -- there's another stimulus benefit accessible to families that's actually more lucrative than all of that. And it's hiding in plain sight, as it were, with many families likely not even aware of its existence.

It's a huge tax credit that comes on top of myriad other benefits packed into the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion legislation that President Biden signed back in March which included funding for a new round of $1,400 stimulus checks, plus the federal child tax credit expansion that will give families as much as $3,600 for each eligible child. What we're referring to is an expansion of the Child and Dependent Care Credit, and here's what you need to know about it.